Biomaterial Database

Relationship between behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and cognition in Alzheimer's disease. 2007

John M Starr, and Jane Lonie

Geriatric Medicine Unit, Royal Victoria Hospital, Edinburgh, UK. John.Starr@ed.ac.uk

BACKGROUND Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSDs) are common. It is unclear whether associations are stronger with the absolute cognitive level or that relative to premorbid mental ability. METHODS The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) was administered to carers of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patients underwent cognitive testing with the National Adult Reading Test (NART) to estimate premorbid IQ and 6 tests of current cognitive function. RESULTS 556 patients, mean age 77.3 years, had NPI scores. The total NPI score correlated significantly with most cognitive test scores, but multi-linear regression identified NART-IQ as the only significant cognitive predictor (beta=-0.17, p=0.008). Principal component analysis of the 10 NPI domains extracted 3 components corresponding to mood, frontal and psychotic factors. The NPI mood factor correlated significantly with NART-IQ (rho=-0.14, p=0.014) and lexical verbal fluency (rho=-0.09, p=0.034) only. The NPI frontal factor correlation with NART-IQ approached significance (rho=-0.11, p=0.053). The NPI psychotic factor correlated significantly with the Mini-Mental State Examination (rho=-0.15, p<0.001) and the Hopkins verbal learning test (rho=-0.11, p=0.013) scores. CONCLUSIONS The relationship between BPSDs and cognition in AD is weak and largely explained by premorbid IQ. There is a stronger relationship between current cognition and psychotic symptoms.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D009483	Neuropsychological Tests	Tests designed to assess neurological function associated with certain behaviors. They are used in diagnosing brain dysfunction or damage and central nervous system disorders or injury.	Aphasia Tests,Cognitive Test,Cognitive Testing,Cognitive Tests,Memory for Designs Test,Neuropsychological Testing,AX-CPT,Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndrome,CANTAB,Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery,Clock Test,Cognitive Function Scanner,Continuous Performance Task,Controlled Oral Word Association Test,Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System,Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment,Hooper Visual Organization Test,NEPSY,Neuropsychologic Tests,Neuropsychological Test,Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test,Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status,Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure,Symbol Digit Modalities Test,Test of Everyday Attention,Test, Neuropsychological,Tests, Neuropsychological,Tower of London Test,Neuropsychologic Test,Test, Cognitive,Testing, Cognitive,Testing, Neuropsychological,Tests, Cognitive
D011618	Psychotic Disorders	Disorders in which there is a loss of ego boundaries or a gross impairment in reality testing with delusions or prominent hallucinations. (From DSM-IV, 1994)	Psychoses,Psychosis, Brief Reactive,Schizoaffective Disorder,Schizophreniform Disorders,Psychosis,Brief Reactive Psychoses,Brief Reactive Psychosis,Disorder, Psychotic,Disorder, Schizoaffective,Disorder, Schizophreniform,Disorders, Psychotic,Disorders, Schizoaffective,Disorders, Schizophreniform,Psychoses, Brief Reactive,Psychotic Disorder,Reactive Psychoses, Brief,Reactive Psychosis, Brief,Schizoaffective Disorders,Schizophreniform Disorder
D003072	Cognition Disorders	Disorders characterized by disturbances in mental processes related to learning, thinking, reasoning, and judgment.	Overinclusion,Disorder, Cognition,Disorders, Cognition
D003704	Dementia	An acquired organic mental disorder with loss of intellectual abilities of sufficient severity to interfere with social or occupational functioning. The dysfunction is multifaceted and involves memory, behavior, personality, judgment, attention, spatial relations, language, abstract thought, and other executive functions. The intellectual decline is usually progressive, and initially spares the level of consciousness.	Senile Paranoid Dementia,Amentia,Familial Dementia,Amentias,Dementia, Familial,Dementias,Dementias, Familial,Dementias, Senile Paranoid,Familial Dementias,Paranoid Dementia, Senile,Paranoid Dementias, Senile,Senile Paranoid Dementias
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000339	Affect	The feeling-tone accompaniment of an idea or mental representation. It is the most direct psychic derivative of instinct and the psychic representative of the various bodily changes by means of which instincts manifest themselves.	Mood,Affects,Moods
D000368	Aged	A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available.	Elderly